Biography

Jack Vettriano occupies a unique position on the contemporary art scene. He first came to public prominence at the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition in 1989. Out of nowhere, he erupted onto the Scottish art scene with a series of paintings, all of which were later sold. Since then there have been sell out exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and New York.

In 2003, Jack Vettriano was awarded an Honorary doctorate from St Andrew’s University and an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts. In April 2004 ‘The Singing Butler’ was sold at Sotheby’s for in excess of £750,000, a record breaking price for a painting by a Scottish artist. In 2009, Vettriano was commissioned by the Yacht Club of Monaco to create a series of paintings to mark the centenary of their world famous yacht, Tuiga. The subsequent exhibition, ‘Homage a Tuiga’, premiered in Monaco as part of Classic Yacht Week in September 2009, before touring to the UK in 2010. In March 2010, Days of Wine and Roses was opened by Scotland’s then First Minister the Rt Hon Alex Salmond SNP at the Kirkcaldy Museum, then transferred to London. Later that year, Sir Jackie Stewart presented Vettriano with the Great Scot of the Year Award which led to a Motion in Parliament calling for his contribution to Scottish culture to be recognised.

In February 2011 it was announced that Vettriano’s self-portrait The Weight would be displayed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Then in January 2012, menswear brand Stefano Ricci launched its Spring Summer 2012 collection entitled ‘Stefano Ricci – a tribute to Vettriano’, using images by the artist and photographic re-interpretations shot by Fredi Marcarini featuring clothes and accessories from the Ricci 2012 collection. This same year The Singing Butler went on display at the Aberdeen Art Gallery as part of an exhibition entitled, ‘From Van Gogh to Vettriano’.

Jack’s 2013/2014 Retrospective at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow attracted huge attention and cemented his status as one of the world’s most popular artists. With studios in Scotland, London and the south of France, he counts Jack Nicholson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Tim Rice and Robbie Coltrane amongst his collectors.